The invention relates to the manufacture of small-sized cheeses from portions of milk curd obtained by separation of the whey from a mixture of curds and whey, and molding in a suitable form.
Methods which produce portions of curd by use of perforated tubes which are loaded with the curd-and whey mixture through the walls of which the whey escapes are known. In these processes the agglomerated curd is made to slide gradually downward with the aid of a piston. When a suitable quantity of the column of curd thus formed in each tube emerges at the base thereof, it is cut. The portion of curd, calibrated in width and thickness thus obtained, is introduced into a mold.
Such a method, which is generally applied in a rotary machine in which the perforated tubes are disposed in a circle, along the generatrices of a cylinder, has the drawback that the curd, agglomerating as it gradually descends in the perforated tubes, has a tendency to clog the pores of the tubes so that the separation of the whey is hampered, and malfunctions occur.
The present invention is a new method which eliminates this drawback.